Are BIRDS Changing the Aviation Industry?

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Birds are by far one of the biggest inspirations when it comes to aircraft design but they still have many features that haven't YET been replicated in planes. The exciting news for both bird and plane spotters is that some of those features could be on the way sooner, rather than later!
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#Mentourpilot #pilot #aircraft

[lars]

I'm a glider pilot and fly regularly with birds in thermals. That other day I entered a thermal, a bird joined me. I orbited the bird as usual, and as the thermal got weaker, I left the thermal. The bird left the thermal right behind me and started "geese-ing" just behind my right wingtip. I noticed him following me, so I flew some slight turns and he followed the slight turns. He was apparently using my wake turbulence to save energy, for a couple of minutes. Or maybe he was just curious. Anyway, it was interesting to watch, I've never seen a bird following me before.

[ikekwa_gimme_pizza]

I'm ornithologist and aviation fan so you can't imagine how excited I am about these news. That's not the first time I heard about owls inspiring wing design but, man, I wanna see it flying

Hope we will see at least smaller aircrafts flying in flocks thats so beautiful

[lungumarin]

there is always room to learn new tricks from nature

[reannereida]

My aircraft design professor, classmates, and I are working on a "gust load alleviation system" for aircraft that uses the same idea how a birds feathers actuate and change the camber of their wings when they hit a gust or are controlling their direction while gliding. We are hoping to eventually even have small scale models that implement this and work our way towards a full flight control system using these adaptive wings. The system we are using to do this is something called Pressure Adaptive Honeycomb. This system is basically a series of cells that run spanwise along the trailing edge of the wings that pressurize and depressurize to flex the wing up or down as needed to alleviate gusts or to control the aircraft. We will actually be presenting a paper on this in January at an AIAA conference! It's so exciting to see that the industry is working on many ways to copy mother nature's wings!

[RobinHood]

If we master wake-energy retrieval, I wonder if it could be used in emergency situations as well. For example, if a 4-engine airplane has a problem and is down to 1 or 2 engines, could another aircraft be diverted to take the lead position and make flying easier for the injured aircraft, providing more lift and/or distance to get to safety.

[chrysopylaedesign]

I love that you are taking a deep dive into the NATURE of flight. I can only speak for myself, but I believe anyone who loves & is fascinated by flight is intensely interested in its fundamental nature. I hope you continue this exploration into the nature of flight & not just the commercial aeronautic industry. Your channel will benefit exponentially I believe from this. Well done !!

[ThatWouldBeCareless]

I enjoyed *screams in Swedish*

Also I'm new to this kind of aviation nerdery. I've been ATC and CRM obsessed for a while (the *communication* and the culture in aviation is so fascinating to me), but how aircraft actually fly just never really caught my attention until your channels... The balance in science communication to get all the relevant info across without either leaving the audience behind or talking down to them is *hard* and your videos are some of the best at it I've come across.

Thank you for all the hard work ❤ I'm looking forward to learning more about my surprise new obsession 😂

[rociosilverroot]

I mean the word Aviation comes from the latin Avis meaning bird. Birds aren't changing aviation. They ARE aviation.

[bodybalancer]

Just reposted a vid on X that amazed me, it’s a Kestrel bird, flying stationary/hovering, in what looks like high wind, looking down, hunting. The body of the bird is moving & fluttering around in the wind, making constant adjustments. The head, is PERFECTLY stable & still. I mean it’s amazing, it looks magical, almost unreal. Having just discovered & become obsessed with your channel(s), i immediately thought, there must be some way this could help aviation if they could figure out how to adapt it into tech, & apply it. If an airplane could be as stable as that Kestrel’s head… might never have a crash again. Some chat GPT reply mentioned research has found these birds can keep their head still within 2 millimeters in any direction while hovering- to the naked untrained human eye, it appears perfectly still.

I do wonder… how much airplanes will change in my lifetime, what they will look like in 10, 20, 30 years if I live that long. I guess the outward appearance won’t change much. But curious to see how drastically or not the tech will change in my lifetime & that I’m able to actually witness.

[chrisoverson]

I can see a form of autopilot with plane to plane communication being required to get the best out of GEESE - network the planes together when they enter a formation and they follow a kind of 'buddy' system. That way they can adjust for eachother's course corrections, communicate weather and LIDAR data between them, and also notify each other to increase separation if one plane detects a fault, excessive turbulence or an autopilot disconnect.

Without the automation, is there an argument this increases pilot workload and fatigue on those long haul flights where there'd usually be many uneventful hours?

I reckon the most complicated part once implemented will be the airlines deciding how they account for one plane getting a free boost to economy while another foots the whole bill... maybe have to calculate the % benefit per flight and establish a payback programme between each other or agree a rotation.

[techdefined]

The serrated owl feather concept could be also a gamechanger for helicopters and their vortex ring problem.

[gaitazampogna]

I also add that on the barn owl wing, if you ever have a chance to hold a barn owl wing, you'll see that it has a comb structure facing forward which is key to silent flying

[organicinsanity]

I’ve never heard of having to ascend or descend 300ft when flying an offset for weather before. Learning from you every video!

[TheBloodhound]

I shared it because I am trying to get a few aviation friends to watch you so we can discuss your videos .

[ralflustig]

"Nobody knows how the birds adjust" Well, ask any cycling professional why they will always be in the perfect energy saving spot behind a leader in front of them (given they have the space in the pack) when wind direction changes. You feel it pretty dramatically if you´re NOT in the right spot and nobody wants to use more energy than needed.

[soulGrafitti]

Fascinating. As a programmer it reminds me of times when it's the paradigm I'm working with that makes the task so hard. I have a fabulous set of hammers, to use an old analogy, that are really hard to put down when a new task requires a brush - can't I just use a softer hammer? Perhaps the solution feels so hard precisely because we're trying to solve it with the only tools we think can solve it. Look at the clips you began with of attempting to do bird-things as a human. Didn't work well until we started doing human-things kinda-sorta like birds. But the bird-things were the inspiration and far more elegant. Now we're appreciating the nuance, brilliance and subtlety of bird-things overlooked for years. As the cyclists, ornithologists and glider pilots have mentioned it's really easy to get it when you're in the right place, the right mind-set.

[JoyRBradford]

I have been binge watching your videos trying to catch up and I want to thank you so much for taking a moment of silence when discussing the loss of life. I am not affiliated with any religious beliefs but it's just respectful that you do that. You and your team are totally awesome!

[Skyer]

17:30 partially relevant experience I have in regards of "feeling" the air. I ride a fairly low power motorcycle (18kW and fairly draggy)
The lower power nature of my bike means that at highway speeds any change in drag becomes immediately noticeable.

So when I either want to maximize efficiency and or ride at higher speeds I put myself in the wake of a truck, van, SUV or car. Depending on wind conditions I may have to ride a fair bit to the side of the lane or get closer and to the side to be in the wake.


(also interesting, driving in the wake of a bigger car like an SUV decreases fuel use by about 10-15%)

[JohnVanderbeck]

The concept video of that Airbus is beautiful. Shame it wouldn't even look like that in real life but it very much evoked a bird of prey and I loved it.

[stronzer]

Petter your vids are more professional than the big end of town productions, an absolute credit to you and your team. looking forward to many years of your new found career.